Class Reunions

[mayormommy 8]

Now I know quite a few folks here haven't yet had the opportunity to celebrate a high school class reunion, but I think there are few folks around that might have had experience with this event.  Our twentieth class reunion (Class of '86 - yes, I'm that old!) is next weekend but I have never been to one before since I now live several states away from my high school. A old girlfriend persuaded me to come, with the promise that we could share a hotel room and commiserate together.

So, my question is, should I be dreading or looking forward to this event? From the pre-registration list, it looks none of my mortal enemies or ex-boyfriends from high school will be there.  On the other hand, only two reasonably close friends are coming. Are these things any fun or should I be studying the airline schedule for an earlier flight home?

[Easy Bakes 253]

Depends on how much you stayed in touch with those people. Me i was glad to get out, and have only seen 1 person i went to highschool with since then.

Never been to one and dont plan on ever going to one, 2008 will be the 25th.

But i bet they are a true wipping.

[GingerBlokey 30]

Awful, hideous, tragic, harrowing

Never been to one in my life

[mayormommy 8]

You two are very encouraging! I have kept up with one friend fairly well (the one I am rooming with), and another friend came to my wedding several years ago but I haven't seen him since. I had other friends in high school but they were not the same year as me. Oh well, perhaps there will be something good on TV back at the hotel that night.

[callagrafx 3]

MM...Reunions are REALLY depressing. Unless you've kept in touch, you find that the only thing you had in common with these people was enforced education

The thought of spending an entire evening with people, finding out they've had (apparently) mega successful careers and their life is so "full"....call me self centred but I really hate hearing other peoples life stories. I would, if I were you, spend the airfare on soimething infinitely more rewarding.

[PhilsCafe 8]

Having finished High School only about two years ago,  I always enjoy meeting people from that time. There are some friends I see more often (at university or on the street) and there are also people I haven't seen for nearly two years. I'd love to hear their story, what they have done since graduation, because we have spent quite a long time working together for the same achievement.

Of course, 20 years is a long period of time and you probably have met a lot of new people since, real friends (Most High School friendships rather are 'partnerships of convenience'). But it still might be interesting to find out what people have done since, just for fun... But check the TV program first, just to be on the save side .

- Phil

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I graduated from high-school in 1955, mm.  I went to a special re-union in 1960 or so when the old music professor retired.  We put on a review of old shows for him.  In 1955 we did Pirates of Penzance and I was Major General Stanley.  Since I was the comic relief in the show, that's the way I played it.  It was lots of fun, and a chance to catch up on what people were doing.

I guess whether you have a good time or not depends on your memory and what baggage, if any, you carried away with you.  Have a good time.

[MrCinatit 30]

I also graduated in '86 and also plan on attending my first reunion this year (Though I don't believe a date has been set up yet - they are planning ahead, of course).

If they ever get the thing off the gound, it should be...interesting.

[moganite 4]

I have one on the 26 of august and i am dreading it but i also want to go see what everyones up to. i am dreading the tquestion so what are you doing with your life? I have been unemployed for so long its not funny esp as i am recovering from a mental illness. Either way it might be entertaining to see everyone else is going bald etc as i have all my hair lol. I haven't made my descision yet but if i can get a job it would be sooo much more satisfying

[mayormommy 8]

It's funny, my dad has been to several high school reunions and he thinks they're fascinating. Perhaps in watching a train wreck sort of way, but he always goes to his. And he's completely bald.  BTW, moganite, I suggest that you claim the career many of my unemployed classmates use and tell people you sell things on the Internet from home for a living - something obscure, like hemp products, perhaps. No one will be the wiser.  And, yay, MrC, another eighty-sixer, w00t!

From what I've gleaned from occasional alumni newsletters, our class has been largely a disreputable lot that has done little in the past 20 years to make our school proud.   So I'm not afraid that most people will have careers better than mine. More money perhaps, since many originally came from wealthy families, but I got over that long ago. My only current baggage is hoping that nobody remembers what I was voted at the final class banquet ("biggest couch potato" and "most shy"). The biggest couch potato thing was entirely unfair, as I did three seasons of sports every year and was hardly lazy. The shy part was unfortunately true.

[Meg 368]

I went to my 10 year high school reunion.   Interesting but a bit weird seeing the people who hadn't moved on.  Some people were still stuck in the clique identity they had in high school (jock, cheerleader, whatever).  It was a one evening thing event with music and dancing and DJ not bright enough to play the music from our high school days.

The 20 year reunion was a bit more interesting.  It was a multi-day event, a music/dancing thing one evening and a picnic at the local park the next day where all of the kids were invited.  It was much nicer seeing people in an open air, spread out environment.

I skipped my 30 year reunion.  That was supposed to be a three day event, an overly expensive all-or-nothing deal.  The friends I'm still in touch with agreed that we were better off skipping it and getting together for dinner ourselves.

It remains to be seen if I'll attend the 40 year reunion or not.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: PhilsCafe Having finished High School only about two years ago,  I always enjoy meeting people from that time. There are some friends I see more often (at university or on the street) and there are also people I haven't seen for nearly two years. I'd love to hear their story, what they have done since graduation, because we have spent quite a long time working together for the same achievement.

Of course, 20 years is a long period of time and you probably have met a lot of new people since, real friends (Most High School friendships rather are 'partnerships of convenience'). But it still might be interesting to find out what people have done since, just for fun... But check the TV program first, just to be on the save side .

- Philquote>

 

your right 20( 20+) years is a long time,  I have friends who iv been  friends with  for that long but i didnt go to school with  any of them. Most of them i met  at the 1st job i ever had and we had mutual intrests allowed us to keep in touch, and some of my old PnP D&D  group i am still friends with. I think you tend to form stronger friendships when you are a bit older then in highschool and to keep them longer as well.

And as No-Body said you also dont tend to carrie baggage when your older.

[Joesocwork 4]

This year would be my 25th year fr H.S.  -'81.  I don't remember ever being invited to any reunions.   I guess my plan of hiding out in D.C. worked!   I had my share of bullies in grade school & I really would have wanted to come back w/ at least a million $$$ to my name to show them up.    I had learning disabilities that didn't get diagnosed until adulthood and I was voted "most likely to forget to pick up my diploma". Seriously!    I used to have fantasies of making it big over here and seeing my name in the local townie newspaper.  As I got older though the less it mattered b/c the town itself has gotten older, more populated, and more diverse  (in Smallville, Indiana not Gotham City, DC that is). I wouldn't mind living there if I hadn't came from there.  I still keep up with Indiana and proudly call myself a Hoosier even though I have no intention whatsoever to go back except to see immediate family.  Now that I think about it I guess, however, my graduating class would still probably be surprised to see my beautiful family however.  By all rights that should be good enough.     

I'd  go to my reunions in college at Purdue, UDC and Howard in a heartbeat.   Maybe less so in the sticks in KY where I attended seminary classes way out in the tobacco fields (I'm not making any KY jokes here I promise!).  But probably especially at Howard where my classmates and I were at a master's level and dedicated to our profession of social work.  To some extent I still miss a quiet, busy, and committed, upper grad university lifestyle and friendships w/ colleagues who are like-minded.

[Fred_Ginger 1]

My 40th reunion was 2 yrs ago - I didn't go to that one although I had initially intended to go. I did go to my 15 yr reunion it was really weird as I had friends in most groups but no one I was really close to (my best friends had gone to Boston to go to school where their mothers had gone to school). I didn't keep in touch with most of my school mates as I was always the one who was 'different' which allowed me to slip in and out of groups so at the reunion people remembered me but in most cases I hadn't a clue as to who they were - I kept asking are you sure we were in the same class? (My class was huge as we were the first Baby Boom class after WWII)

I would say to go, if only as a social experiment, especially as you're going with someone from your class - you two will be able to prompt each others memories (and talk about it later!).

[mayormommy 8]

Wow, thanks for all the input everyone! I had signed up for this thing weeks ago and was just having that, "What have I gotten myself into?" sort of moment. Ski, my dad had the same reaction - he thought his 20 year reunion was much more interesting than his 10 year reunion.  And FanG, I fully expect not to recognize most people. I think some of them have stayed in pretty close touch with each other, which means I will still be on the fringes of various cliques even after all these years. But the few people I liked, I liked very much and I'm looking forward to seeing them at least.  I will have my 11 year-old son in tow (poor thing, but this trip is also to visit some relatives) so I have a good conversation starter and also a good conversation ender, as in, "Don't you have to go to the bathroom, honey?"

I promise I'll report back after next weekend and let you know how it goes.

[Joesocwork 4]

Children make for great ice breakers and diversions!  Have fun!

[defcon pilot 0]

Even if I was old enough to be able to "celebrate" one, I wouldn't bother; I don't have any close school friends anyway (almost everyone at my school is an offensive, punkish little moron), and the only real friends I've ever had live on the other side of town (the more suburban/rural southeastern district of San Jose).

On a lighter note, what kind of girlfriend are you talking about?

[mayormommy 8]

Okay, I promised I would come back and report on the reunion and the verdict is........not bad. I think it really helped that a couple fairly close friends attended. Whether you have kept up with your friends over the years isn't as important as how close you were back then, because you'll still naturally gravitate to each other. It might even be better if you haven't kept up with them because then you have more to talk about! And DP, that was my "gurlfriennnd" that I roomed with. My ex-boyfriend did not show up, much to my relief.

I did a terrible job at recognizing anybody, so I was squinting at their nametags which included scans of our respective yearbook pictures. At first it was very surreal - I was back at high school but all my classmates had been replaced by these fat grey-haired people! The other observation I had is that like many people in high school, I didn't feel like I was in the main crowd. However, I was surprised to see a few people I regarded as very popular were floundering a bit at the reunion because no one from their clique had shown up. So there wasn't an "in" and "out" crowd after all, but everyone was actually in tiny little cliques and we all felt like outsiders back then. It seems so silly in retrospect.

Some people had changed a lot (and I mean both in looks and personality) and some were almost exactly the same. But nearly everyone was much nicer, and very grateful just that you showed up, even if they didn't know you that well. There was very little competitiveness or talk about careers, as we were a class of very little ambition to begin with. Anyway, bouyed by the fact that such a large contingent did come (about 60 out of a class of 160), there was great enthusiasm for planning the 25th reunion already. My son even had a pretty good time, since there were some sports events during the day and a big bonfire that night. So all in all, it was definitely not bad.

[Easy Bakes 253]

glad you had a good time.

I guess the horror stories you hear about the sad people who dont get over the petty highschool stuff

are not as common as belived

[PhilsCafe 8]

Good to hear that it wasn't that bad. I guess most of the people are becoming mentally more mature over the years and when they look back they probably start to think 'what in the world was I thinking...' - at least this happened to me a couple of times already - after two years.

[moganite 4]

i am still getting over stuff that happened years ago myself lol

i was really bullied at school

[DuskTrooper 314]

Yep. Nothing like reuniting with the inmates that you shared a cell with in the government indoctrination facilities.

[hamsterTK 93]

Even if I was old enough to be able to "celebrate" one, I wouldn't bother; I don't have any close school friends anyway (almost everyone at my school is an offensive, punkish little moron), and the only real friends I've ever had live on the other side of townquote>

I know that feeling. Of course i have almost exactly 10 years to decide if i will go to one.. My HS graduation is on friday.

Yep. Nothing like reuniting with the inmates that you shared a cell with in the government indoctrination facilities.quote>

loll

[SC4 meister 7]

ROFL@ Dusk Congrats@TK

[Fred_Ginger 1]

Mayormommy, I'm really glad you went to your reunion, and that you had a reasonably good time. When you think about it, we spend a lot of time with classmates (which can be good or very bad), so they have a hugh impact on us. Good luck on the next one!

[Joesocwork 4]

MM: I'm glad for you that you had the experience and was able to share it with your son to boot.  

I guess a person can go home again afterall;  apparently it's filled with other people seeing if they can do the same.

F_G: it really is interesting to see quite a few years later the impact that our peers have had on us as adults even if we never see them again.  My college classes taught me that the teen years are pretty much were get a sense of social identity.  And it is fascinating how RL still verifies it in unique little way and that that sense of social identity still sticks with people on an individual level so much time afterwards.

[Voar Tok 4]

Originally posted by: DuskTrooper Yep. Nothing like reuniting with the inmates that you shared a cell with in the government indoctrination facilities.quote>

I'm glad that you had a good time with it MM.  Here's to hoping that the next one will be even better.